Consultation meetings with judiciary and police at district level

2019

As part of ongoing activities with district level stakeholders and judiciary, Activating Village Courts in Bangladesh Phase II Project organized four consultation workshops with judiciary, administration and police at district level during April-May 2019.

These consultations were held on ‘Expediting Coordination and Case Referral to Village Courts’ with
leadership of District and Session Judges of Sirajganj, Khulna, Cox’sbazar and Naogaon. Upazila Nirbahi
Officers (UNOs) and Union Parishad’s(UP) chairmen of the respective project areas were also present in
the workshops.

The Participants of these workshops are the major stakeholders who play the most active roles on delivering services of Village Courts (VCs). In the workshops, UP chairmen shared their experiences with district level judicial officers and district administrations. Major recommendations chalked out in these workshops were as follows:

• The financial jurisdiction of the Village Court Act 2006 should be increased to at least BDT 1,50,000 ($1,783)
• More trainings and capacity building activities for UP chairmen on Village Court Act 2006
• Need fulltime engagement of Village Court Assistant
• Amend law so that Police can refer cases to VCs
• More awareness programmes on VC should be taken for mass people.